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Notes In Observance – WWE NXT 6/1/16: More Than Good Hands

“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.

(Aired 6/1/16)

More Than Good Hands

– We can only assume the window of time for The Revival on NXT is closing up, but that said, they’ve solidly convinced us that they’re primed and ready to potentially be the first two-time NXT Tag Team Champions. A lot of this show’s focus was on The Revival and their mission to get back what they felt was theirs, yet also pushed other teams on the rise. The opening in-ring segment between Revival and Johnny Gargano/Tommaso Ciampa was solid mic work from all involved. Gargano/Ciampa looked tough in the way they directly confronted the heels and didn’t back down, while Revival came off as overconfident. Surprisingly, the voices who stood out here were Dash Wilder (almost Kevin Owens-like in his delivery) and Ciampa, who we never hear from often. This obviously set the stage for the two to battle later in the show, but we had assumed this would be a way to give Revival a hard-fought win headed into TakeOver: The End and give Gargano/Ciampa a good performance to put under their name. Revival also had some bold insults towards the NXT Tag Team Champions American Alpha when they called them “little amateurs” and it’d be cool to see if AA would follow them up on that.

– Thank goodness Shinsuke Nakamura can rely on few words and fancy poses for mic work, as it still makes him come off charismatic. Nobody else possesses that ability and his backstage promo to hype his encounter at TakeOver against Austin Aries was solid.

– The Tye Dillinger-Buddy Murphy match appeared on paper to be a way to get the now-solo Murphy a win after he lost his girlfriend Alexa Bliss and fellow partner Wesley Blake, but they went the way of “slump” as we actually witnessed a rare Dillinger victory. It’s nice to see Dillinger get something after the way he connects with the fans and gets misused. That said, the match wasn’t great and too reliant on monotone rest holds, but the finish was the key. Can we call it Murphy’s Law? Hardy har-har.

– The sit-down interview segment with Corey Graves, NXT Champion Samoa Joe and Finn Balor was fantastic all-around. These segments are money for big-hyped matches and left us wanting more. Joe got over that he got what he finally deserved and had to jump through hoops to get his shot (beating Sami Zayn, put in a “ridiculous battle royale”) all because Balor promised him a fair shot and didn’t fight for it. On the other side, Balor had a great argument that Joe felt entitled to everything and there were others more deserving of the opportunities. Joe had excellent rebuttals in how he asked why those people weren’t where he was. History was also played up to get both men over as international stars. Another great moment was where Balor explained that despite everybody talking about the future, it was the present he was concerned about and that the NXT Championship meant more to him than anything. They got in each other’s faces to end it, but eased up on physicality. Don’t have enough good words for how it came across. Let’s get to that fight already, huh?

– Austin Aries seems to be stuck in tweener territory, mainly for the reason there are better new acts in NXT. That does make a great heel logic motivation and reason to pair him with one of those people in Nakamura. Aries’ match with Elias Samson sure didn’t amaze us despite some flashy offense, but it accomplished the task of keeping Aries strong for Nakamura. Samson received what felt more like “go-away heat” and you can’t blame the crowd there. We liked the finish since it involved Aries breaking out the Last Chancery submission. Aries’ post-match promo was good and hit more on the heel side, but that’s fine considering his opponent is more over with the fans. That cape though.

– We’re curious as to what all the hype of Andrade “Cine” Almas is and we’d get to see it go down at TakeOver. Nice.

– The Gargano/Ciampa-Revival match was what we assumed a glorified squash to build Revival into TakeOver and still allow Gargano/Ciampa to make a statement. Some good action early on with fast-paced chain wrestling and hard hits. The finish definitely took us by surprise, as Dawson hit a superplex on Gargano and got rolled up on the impact for the pinfall. On one hand, it did hurt Revival with a loss so close to TakeOver, but it set up the post-match angle where the heels took out their anger on their opponents and teased breaking Ciampa’s leg before AA made the save and Champions and challengers briefly scuffled.

– The contract signing segment with NXT Women’s Champion Asuka, Nia Jax and General Manager William Regal was decent, all things considering. Also liked the visual touch of all three dressed professionally to make it come off more important. Jax has been built up as a monster (too little, too late) but it gives Asuka a formidable opponent to squash. Jax came off well from the segment in how she grabbed the mic from Regal and bragged how she “broke” Bayley and wasn’t scared of Asuka and pushed her to the canvas. Asuka had a brief moment where she said Jax should’ve been scared and screamed at her in Japanese (?) before she got powerbombed by Jax to close the show. That was definitely the way to go and it was smart to at least convey the idea that Jax could be a threat to the Title.

Quick Results

Tye Dillinger def. Buddy Murphy via pinfall

Austin Aries def. Elias Samson via submission

Johnny Gargano/Tommaso Ciampa def. The Revival via pinfall

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About Nicholas Jason Lopez

Just a 25 year-old Brooklynite. Nothing more, nothing less.
Currently Freelancing for The Bensonhurst Bean website in Brooklyn, he has also been published on sites such as Review Fix, College University of New York Athletic Conference, Dying Scene, Brooklyn News Service, All Media NY, BrooklynFans.com and Yahoo Voices.
He has also interned for The Home Reporter/Brooklyn Spectator based out of Brooklyn, NY.